This month 18 Million Rising is launching a solidarity fundraiser to fund two community-led efforts reimagining community safety and comprehensive ethnic studies.
100% of profits from a limited run of our Unmasking Yellow Peril and Call On Me, Not the Cops zines will support Oakland Chinatown Coalition’s Chinatown Ambassador Program, a community-led effort reimagining community safety and care for our elders and communities without the police and Make Us Visible CT, an organizing effort calling for comprehensive ethnic studies and equitable and anti-racist education by including Asian American and Pacific Islander studies in high school social studies curriculum in Connecticut.
The 18MR team wrote Unmasking Yellow Peril at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in collaboration with the Asian and Asian American Studies Institute (UConn), and Jason Oliver Chang, Associate Professor of History and Asian American Studies (UConn) to address and historicize the escalation of anti-Asian violence and hate.
Call On Me, Not the Cops was written during the Black Lives Matter uprisings in the summer of 2020 – the largest racial justice movement in U.S. history. As Asian Americans, we recognized the need for a culturally-specific roadmap to have conversations with our families about finding safety with each other, not the police.
A year later, both of these writings are still urgent. Anti-Asian violence in the United States has risen 1900%. This is happening in the context of decades of racialized class conflict stemming from the Model Minority Myth and an even longer history of Yellow Peril. We are also reminded that these attacks are tied to deep histories of racism and inequity in this country. The rise in Anti-Asian violence and devastation of Pacific Islanders by the pandemic underscores the urgency of responding with long term commitments to transforming our schools and community safety that disavows anti-Black reactions and supports indigenous sovereignty.
This is why we think offering these two zines together is so important. Now is our opportunity to organize for solutions that create safety for all our communities, instead of those that pit us against each other.
You can also download a free digital copy of Unmasking Yellow Peril and Call On Me, Not the Cops.
If you are Asian American, will you pledge not to call the police?
About the Beneficiaries
The Chinatown Ambassador Program is a community-led effort in Oakland, CA reimagining community safety and care for our elders and communities without the police. Click here if you would like to donate directly.
Make Us Visible CT is an organizing effort calling for the inclusion of Asian American and Pacific Islander studies in high school social studies curriculum in Connecticut. They are organizing for equitable and anti-racist education through State Bill 678, which demands the development of new resources, greater capacity to serve families, teachers, and schools, and investment in local education. Click here if you would like to donate directly.
Do you live in Connecticut? Volunteer with the campaign to bring a robust Ethnic Studies curriculum to Connecticut public schools.
